Making More Watches

Emma, Lauren and Shannon bought beads and made some watches tonight (the watches above are in that order). I pretended to be the watch-making expert and gave everybody feedback and helped tie knots and stuff. I hope Emma and Lauren run out of money soon so we can stop the madness.

Visit from Shannon

After a super-busy, stressful week, we had a nice weekend with Aunt Shannon. We picked her up at the airport Saturday morning and then ran some shopping errands in Idaho Falls. We got home, then just stayed there the rest of the day.
Landon went with our neighbor, Brook, and bought a truckload of bark to beautify the outside of our building. We pay HOA fees for this purpose, but we like to go the extra mile and make it look nicer than everyone else's building. Brook is pretty intense and we just go along with her.
I did my last sharing time of the month on Sunday and was sooo glad when it was over. Landon happened to be subbing in Lauren's class (Shannon went with him), and he mentioned that my sharing time was good on paper, but he could see that I wasn't having much fun. I guess I need to work on enjoying the experience instead of just enduring it. Last week, I was asked to take on the 66-child nursery as an additional responsibility for my calling and I didn't hesitate to say no. I just can't.
We had homemade hamburgers for dinner yesterday (instead of frozen patties) and Landon couldn't stop moaning. I guess we're only doing it that way from now on.
Today I dropped Shannon off at school to help Landon in his classroom while I took Lauren to the doctor's office. She has this recurring sinus/congestion/cough that is back again. She's been on 3 different antibiotics since December, but can't seem to get rid of this problem. We're on antibiotic number 4, an inhaler, and a nasal steroid plus Tylenol with codeine so she can sleep through the cough at night. If this doesn't work, we're off to the Ear, Nose, Throat specialist.
I'll try to take some pictures this week, but for this post, just try to imagine how much fun we're having.

Awesome Dinner

Raise your hand if you have ever eaten a Kumquat! We got some when we did Bountiful Baskets yesterday. We also got some purple kale, which is something else I had never tried. Landon got creative and made such a great meal tonight. He made Zuppa Toscano Soup, which is a recipe in our friends and family cookbook that my sister Heidi contributed. The recipe calls for kale, so we used up the purple kale that way. He also made kumquat/orange marmalade. It turned out really good! He also made a cilantro/tomato/onion/avocado/mango salsa. He was a busy little cooker today, and all the food was explosively flavorful.

Bowling

We went bowling Saturday! The Rex has a new pizza "restaurant" inside near the bowling alley, so we ate pizza and bowled a game. The pizza was surprisingly delicious! Much better than Craigos.

Lauren spotted a little plastic ducky that she wanted, so she paid $2 of her own money to play some arcade games in an effort to win 50 tickets so she could "buy" the little plastic duck, which appeared to be worth about 10 cents. She didn't care, she was satisfied with her purchase. Anything for a duck.

Today was my 2nd Sharing Time. Went much better than last week, for anyone who was concerned.

This week I'm looking forward to my guitar lesson, book club and Bunco group. Yes, I've been invited to join a Bunco group. I'll keep you posted. Also, my sister Shannon is coming to visit this week (Saturday). The girls are beside themselves with anticipation. We may have to invest in some Xanax, Valium or other tranquilizer for Lauren, in particular. She gets really crazy whenever she's around Shannon, or "Sha-nay-nay" as she likes to call her. I think that must be Shannon's African tribal name.

Weekend Events

We told the girls no birthday parties after age 8, so this year Lauren invited 2 friends to ride the bus home with her, watch a movie and eat dinner with us. Lauren planned a little game with the girls and had them make hair bows together. They watched the Hannah Montana movie, and played a marshmallow game. When it was Lauren's turn, she ended up spooning marshmallows all over the room. So cute. I'm pretty sure Lauren turned this playdate into a birthday party, right under our noses.
*One funny thing...after the movie I suggested that the girls go outside and play. One of the girls said her mom won't let her play outside because she's afraid her daughter will get kidnapped. I know the mom, and I believe she told her that. Craaaazy.

Landon made some homemade pickles a week or so ago. They get better with age, and they're soooo yummy right now. We used pickling cucumbers that we got from Bountiful Baskets (that food co-op). These pickles are so much better than store-bought cucumbers.

Today I did my first sharing time since 2000 when I was last in the Primary Presidency. Junior sharing time was worse than I imagined, and I imagined it pretty bad. I just don't have it in me to use a little baby voice to talk to the thirty 3 year olds and twenty 4 year olds. When I showed them a DVD of a scripture story (from the Church-produced scripture DVDs...no Living Scriptures from me!) they were in a trance. Unfortunately, I chose one that was only 2 minutes long. I will choose a longer one next time. Senior sharing time was wonderful. It's like the difference between an insane asylum and a college classroom. Night and day. I get more opportunities to improve my methods next week and the week after.

Lauren's 9th Birthday

The baby turned 9 yesterday. Somewhere along the line, the girls developed the way they want their birthday presents. They request that we hide them and then let them look for them first thing in the morning before work/school. Landon and I never did this as kids and we've never introduced that idea to them. They just request that we do that every year. So we all got up early, so we had enough time for Lauren to hunt for her presents.
She had a very specific birthday list and we did our best to get her what she wanted. She got a dress, some Slim Jims, a "ginormous" Symphony bar with blue writing, Disney "Scene it" game, a bag made by mom, gel pens and some "squishies." Squishies are little sticky, rubbery, slimy things that come in little plastic bubbles in $.25 vending machines at K-mart. She also got lots of cash from various relatives. I got her a Mylar balloon and dropped it off at her school to be delivered to her classroom at recess. That was a huge surprise, because in the past when she's told me she would like me to do that for her, I said "No way! Maybe in high school, but it's ridiculous when people do that for kids in elementary school. It's just inappropriate and dumb." I'm such a pushover with my girls.
*Thanks to all the family members who sent money and cards and called Lauren. She's really excited to spend her money.*
Lauren wanted to go to NY Burrito for dinner, so we did. It was awesome not to cook a big birthday dinner.We went to the frozen yogurt shop for dessert #1.Lauren just wanted a low-key family night for her birthday celebration. We played Farkle and Uno Attack. It was pretty fun.This was dessert #2. She wanted a store bought cake for her birthday cake. Fine with me!! It was lovely.

Quick Trip to Utah

The teachers have an inservice training today, so the kids and I have a 3 day weekend. We opted to drive to Utah to visit Kristen. My mom was also in town visiting Kristen, so it was a good weekend to do it. We stayed at a hotel at Thanksgiving Point to make it more like a mini-vacation, and to give the kids something to do.

The fun part: we got to spend quality time with my mom, Kristen, Manase, Oliviana, and the Luke family (they came up to swim, eat at JCW's and buy fudge at Cabela's). The bad part: after hearing a suspicious noise we took the truck to the shop to have a wheel hub replaced for $630. Lauren had a fever and felt sick one night, and Emma left her MP3 player in the hotel and it was never "found" by the housekeeping staff.

Sing a Song of USA

Emma's "team" did a play last night. At the middle school, the fifth grade classes are teamed up, and the kids go back and forth between the two teachers for Social Studies and Science. They have team activities every Friday, plus they did this play together. The name of the play was "Sing a Song of USA." Emma's part was Betsy Ross. She asked for the smallest part available, because she wanted to participate, but not have to memorize lots of lines. It was a very cute play and we're all glad it's over now.

Emma, sitting on the risers before the play began.

We threatened to sit on the front row and heckle her during the play. We told her we'd say stuff like "Betsy Ross eats her boogers!" or "Betsy Ross makes crappy flags!" We refrained. Here's Emma's big moment. Her line was, "I am Betsy Ross. George Washington asked me to make a flag for our new nation. What a privilege!"